I trust quasi-religious new agey people the least. You know, the ones that won't say that God is a person, they refer to "the universe" giving them things... Usually these people are trash pickers after decades of "the universe" thingy but who am I to judge.
============= Great points And I am not[nor did i think you did either] disrespecting scap dealers. I almost, but not quite, sold an old GM auto of mine to a scrap dealer. But since another dealer gave me a deal ,i accepted. Quasi religious new agey or even some mid east religions seem to illustrate; garbage in/garbage out. Not that all mid east religions or mid east /redemptions are garbage; Judiasm, Christianity came thru the middle east. Theyre helpful.
One's belief if God or not is never a determining factor in whether I trust them or not. It's not even about whether I agree with them on anything, or even like them at all. I know some complete assholes, but I do trust that they will do what they say they will, and that's all that counts. If I don't know you, or know you very well at all, trust is yet to be determined. Earn it by doing what you say you'll do. Simple as that!
Max E....This is the most intelligent, worldly, lucid, and balanced post I have read from you, or anyone on ET. Thank you. The study revealed that Christian believers in God were less trusting of athiests as a group than of Christian beleivers. The study did NOT reveal an equivilance in the minds of the Christian beleivers between athiests and rapists.....I wonder if they asked them about rapists and certain priests......?
Supposing you were going out for the evening and you had two choices available for a baby sitter: A) Athiest B) Rapist Would any sane individual flip a coin? Piel would probably send the kids to Granny's, hire both, and gang up on the athiest with the rapist.
How come you never see atheists go to central america and drill water wells for the poor?? http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/525911_4145950848176_652121042_n.jpg http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/521422_4145792724223_1480771412_n.jpg http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/554735_4145785484042_1542286179_n.jpg http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/246491_4145787924103_1653424591_n.jpg
Apparently you don't know much about who's drilling water wells for the poor. The majority of international NGOs is secular. None of the 3 largest NGOs - CARE, Oxfam, AI - has any religious agenda. There are indeed also large religious NGOs, but several, such as World Vision, are in the critics due to dubious missionary activities. The problem with them is that their primary goal is not helping the poor; it's promoting their cults. Secular organizations have helped the poor far more in the last 50 years that all world churchs together.